Agriculture expert tells irrigation farmers that there is nothing they can do about this year’s plants except watch them wilt and die from killer nematode worms.

An “unknown” pest – particularly partial to tomatoes – has invaded the lands of irrigation farmers, killing and destroying any fruit they come across and costing the owners a fortune in pesticides that don’t work and plants that end up dying before they can produce any fruit.

The “enemy” is a worm that is attacking mainly tomato plants grown in the Fariya community in the Jere Local Government Area of Borno State.

Many farmers have spent a fortune on pesticides to try to control and destroy the deadly pest – but all in vain.
Irrigation farmer Bulama Modu Shokari told RNI that this was the first time they had encountered the deadly pest.
“The unknown pest stops plants from yielding fruit and eventually it destroys the plants, leaving the farmer without a crop. Farmers are losing everything. We have been looking for chemicals and pesticides that will get rid of this destructive and nasty pest but we can’t find anything that stops them.

“Unfortunately, because we have never come across this before, we did not get an agricultural expert to come in time to investigate and teach us how to deal with this pest. Now, our farmlands have been destroyed by the pest.”

Musa Mustapha said he had planted tomatoes about seven months ago.
“They have not produced any yield or fruit because of this unknown pest. It starts at the upper leaves of the plant and works its way down to the roots. It makes holes in the fruit and the leaves before it destroys them completely.
“I spent almost ₦40,000 buying different chemicals and pesticides but all in vain. We have never seen such a dangerous pest that destroys plants completely and can’t be controlled by chemicals or pesticides.

“That’s why we have described it as the ‘unknown’ pest. We have had similar pests in the past but we have never come across such a deadly and dangerous pest.”

Malam Isa Bukar Kumshe, an agricultural expert and a senior lecturer at the Mohammet Lawan College of Agriculture in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, said the pest that destroys tomato plants had been identified as a nematode or roundworm.

“The plant-parasitic nematodes damage the host plant by causing wounds on the plant roots and some microbial diseases, forming brown spots on the root and swelling or rotting of the tubers on the above-ground parts of the plant.
“In agricultural areas, nematicides are often used to prevent the damage of these nematodes.”

Kumshe said that you could recognise the presence of these worms by yellowing, stunting and wilting of the plant, accompanied by a decline in yield.
The best method of controlling nematodes was to treat the seeds with chemicals before planting because treated seeds were coated with a pesticide that limited crop damage from fungus and insects.

Also nematodes could be managed through worm force insecticides.

He advised irrigation farmers who were battling the nematodes – the “unknown pests” – to always spray local fertilisers, such as the faeces of livestock like cows, goats, sheep or even chickens, on their farmlands with water for at least three weeks. Once the soil had absorbed the fertiliser, the farmland would be ready for planting.

But, he said, this advice would be useful for irrigation farmers when they were getting their lands ready for irrigation next year.

He said it was too late now and there was not anything they could do with this year’s yield. They would just have to sit back and watch their plants being destroyed by the nematodes.
“An expensive and unfulfilling lesson,” he said.

SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO